


Storm Gifts

by WolffyLuna



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Fluff, Huddling For Warmth, M/M, Makeshift Shelters, Pre-Timeskip | Academy Phase (Fire Emblem: Three Houses), Rain
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-07
Updated: 2020-08-07
Packaged: 2021-03-06 03:40:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 996
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25726816
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WolffyLuna/pseuds/WolffyLuna
Summary: Ashe and Dedue get lost in the woods in a rain storm.
Relationships: Ashe Duran | Ashe Ubert/Dedue Molinaro
Comments: 6
Kudos: 30
Collections: Battleship 2020, Battleship 2020 - Yellow Team





	Storm Gifts

**Author's Note:**

  * For [nan](https://archiveofourown.org/users/nan/gifts).



> I hope you liked this! I had a lot of fun writing it!

The rain came down heavy, hard enough that it felt like hail, and enough of it that it fell off the trees in great sheets and waterfalls. And it was _freezing_. Ashe and Dedue were even colder than the rain, thanks to being out in it for so long. 

Ashe shielded his eyes with his hand, in the vain hope of being able to see further. It didn’t work. The splashback on the ground was thick enough it was almost fog, and the sun was slinking towards the horizon and hiding behind the clouds.

He and Dedue had been doing a practical exercise on woodlands reconnaissance, and it had all been going well until this rain storm, when it—well. It was nearly dark, and they were covered in their own body weight of cold water, and alone.

Ashe worried the bottom of his lip. They were two possibilities. One: Byleth had, in a fey mood, decided the best way for them to learn how to handle the woods was to leave them alone overnight in inclement weather. Or two: they had gotten very, _very_ lost. He wasn’t sure which was worse. Neither was very good? Neither implied particularly good odds of rescue?

“Ashe.” Dedue stood behind him, close enough that he shaded his back from the rain. “You’re shivering.”

He was. He’d stopped noticing it. He’d been cold and soaked long enough that it kind of faded into the background. If he paid attention, he could feel himself shake and hear his teeth chatter, but only if he paid attention to it.

He turned to Dedue, smiling. “It’s fine.” It wasn’t, being frozen overnight outdoors wasn’t good for you (and he was _not_ going to think about the worst outcome, not right now while it was looming over), but he didn’t want to cause Dedue any undue worry.

Dedue looked singularly unimpressed and disbelieving at that statement.

He sat heavily up against the trunk of a tree. There was an air of weariness and finality to it.

Ashe thought he was giving up, in the face of the weather and their isolation and their slimming odds. “No, it’ll be alright, we’ll work something out--”

“Sit.” Dedue held out his cloak with one arm, making a something that resembled a shelter.

“Oh, right!” That was probably a good idea. Staying in one spot so they were easier to find, staying as dry as they could: all good wilderness survival techniques.

Ashe sat down next to him, scooting up close enough that he fit under the cloak. The cloak didn’t stop all the rain drops, but it stopped enough of. And Dedue was... pleasantly warm. “Thank you.”

Dedue shrugged, as much as he could with one arm holding a cloak above their heads. “It had to be done.”

“I know, but it’s still appreciated, even if you had to do it anyway.”

Dedue made a noise of assent.

He knew it was just his sense of temperature being screwy, the contrast between the storm outside and their little ‘tent’, but Dedue didn’t feel warm against his back. He felt _hot_. Like leaning against an oven. But in a good way? A way where you didn’t get burned, at least. “You’re really warm.” Maybe he shouldn’t have said that, but it was true. He was really warm, and it was nice, and maybe that was just because he was frozen and soaked through and every scrap of warmth was sweeter than honey biscuits with extra honey--

“So are you.”

“Thank you.” Which was definitely the wrong reply to that statement.

This whole situation made him feel a way, maybe. He wasn’t going to look at it too hard, not while the threat of the Other Thing He Wasn’t Going To Think About still loomed large. And not while they were kind of trapped together. That wouldn’t have been fair. But while he already considered Dedue a good friend, he didn’t realise being in such close contact would be so... nice? Comforting? And that implied things. Things to deal with later, when he could feel out if Dedue was interested.

“Is your arm getting tired? I can take a turn holding it up if you need help.”

“There is no need.”

“I can, it would be no trouble.”

Dedue repeated “There is no need,” and then turned to watch the horizon.

They stayed like that for a while, Ashe wasn’t really sure. He’d just noticed a faint movement next to him, when he heard a voice.

“They’re over here!”

It sounded like Annette’s? Ashe looked up. Had they been found?

There was a great galumphing noise as the Blue Lions ran through the mud and out of the fog towards them. They were all varyingly soaked, using whatever makeshift umbrellas and raincoats they could rustle up, but they were fractionally drier than him and Dedue.

Except for Byleth, he was dripping enough to irrigate a field, and looked completely comfortable and in her element despite it. “Are you two alright?”

“I am fine,” Dedue said. “But Ashe is shiver—”

“No, I’m fine, really. Just a bit cold. And you’re shivering too!”

Byleth made an expression. Ashe couldn’t quite read it. ‘Indulgent smile’ maybe? Maybe she wasn’t even making one? He was tired, and Byleth was hard enough to read at the best of times. “Both of you should get warm then.” She pulled out two dry cloaks from an oil skin bag, and handed them to them.

They all walked back to the monastery, Byleth leading the way and Mercedes and Annette lighting it. Everyone was tired and drained, but in good spirits from both not getting _completely_ lost in the woods and the prospect of warm dry beds when they got back to the monastery.

Ashe stuck close to Dedue as they walked back, so he could stay close to his warmth. (And he liked to think, if he wasn’t fooling himself, that Dedue was doing the same.)


End file.
